The
Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, lived over 2500 years ago and is known
as Siddhartha Gotama.n3 His father,
Suddhodana, the kshatriyan4 king,
ruled over the land of the Sâkyans at Kapilavatthu on the Nepalese
frontier. As he came from the Gotama family, he was known as Suddhodana
Gotama. Mahâmâyâ, princess of the Koliyas, was Suddhodana’s
queen.

In
623 B.C. on a full-moon day of May,Vasanta-tide, when in India the trees
were laden with leaf, flower, and fruit, and man, bird, and beast were
in joyous mood, Queen Mahâmâyâ was travelling in state
from Kapilavatthu to Devadaha, her parental home, according to the custom
of the times, to give birth to her child. But that was not to be, for
halfway between the two cities, in the beautiful Lumbini Grove, under
the shade of a flowering Sal tree, she brought forth a son.

Lumbini,
or Rummindei, the name by which it is now known, is one hundred miles
north of Vârânasi and within sight of the snowcapped Himalayas.
At this memorable spot where Prince Siddhartha, the future Buddha, was
born, Emperor Asoka, 316 years after the event, erected a mighty stone
pillar to mark the holy spot. The inscription engraved on the pillar
in five lines consists of ninety-three Asokan characters, among which
occurs the following: "hida budhe jâte sâkyamuni.
Here was born the Buddha, the sage of the Sâkyans."

The
mighty column is still to be seen. The pillar, as crisp as the day it
was cut, had been struck by lightning even when Hiuen Tsiang, the Chinese
pilgrim, saw it towards the middle of the seventh century A.C. The discovery
and identification of Lumbini Park in 1896 is attributed to the renowned
archaeologist, General Cunningham.

On
the fifth day after the birth of the prince, the king summoned eight
wise men to choose a name for the child and to speak of the royal babe’s
future. He was named Siddhârtha, which means one whose purpose
has been achieved. The brahmins deliberated and seven of them held up
two fingers each and declared: "O King, this prince will become
a cakravarti, a universal monarch, should he deign to rule, but
should he renounce the world, he will become a sammâ-sambuddha,
a Supremely Enlightened One, and deliver humanity from ignorance."
But Kondañña, the wisest and the youngest, after watching
the prince, held up only one finger and said: "O King, this prince
will one day go in search of truth and become a Supremely Enlightened
Buddha."

Queen
Mahâmâyâ, the mother, passed away on the seventh day
after the birth of her child, and the babe was nursed by his mother’s
sister, Pajâpati Gotami. Though the child was nurtured till manhood
in refinement amid an abundance of material luxury, the father did not
fail to give his son the education that a prince ought to receive. He
became skilled in many branches of knowledge, and in the arts of war
easily excelled all others. Nevertheless, from his childhood the prince
was given to serious contemplation.